Tag: The Traveller

000 – Posts have been good thank you all but bigger picture In the Northern Lights (His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman) Lord Asriel opens the doorway to new world at the cost of Roger, in the next books Lyra goes to find Roger and ends up in caves with lost spirits, jump to Traveller book and the realm of Hungary ghosts, there are many parallel themes that are really happening.

The above post from Robert Light prompted me to contribute the following:

The hungry ghosts in The Traveller/ the lost souls in His Dark Materials are arriving in Hungary and elsewhere in Europe as we speak. Lyra gave the lost souls spiritual nourishment with her stories from the living world because they have forgotten who they are (losing memory of their earthly life), that they have a spiritual source. Thus the refugees and migrants pouring into Europe are in reality seeking spiritual truth and sustenance but as Jenny said this is within all of us and we need to reconnect to that truth. The first realm of constant warfare in the ruins of civilisation, of gangs and betrayal, is also with us in places like Syria. As for the 5th realm – where the half gods hold sway – and from whom Michael is learning and wanting to recreate their system here – that world is portrayed in the film The Hunger Games but it is also beginning to be created in Western society as suggested in The Traveller. There are still areas of beauty and remoteness on the planet which reflect the 3rd realm of the animals and 6th realm of the Gods. It seems that everything is coming into the present.

000 – I find that I keep coming back to the somewhat cryptic words you (RLight) used concerning Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’, of it being a story of ‘there and back again’ but ‘never to rest’. Somewhat appalled by the ‘never to rest’ part, a possible explanation eventually came! In our culture all the stories are about the need for a journey, or quest, to ‘find ourselves’. Thus, Bilbo journeyed through valleys, crossed rivers, trekked up hills and climbed mountains – drawing on all his reserves of courage and endurance – so as to unlock the door into the mountain to reach the treasure within. The truth is that the treasure lies within all of us. It can be unlocked at any time if we can but find the courage to look within ourselves and acknowledge who we truly are, warts and all. If we were to recognise this truth, we would finally be able to rest.

The same truth lies at the root of the connected remark you made on the story of Sir Gawain, who is duty bound every year at mid-winter to go off in search of the Green Knight. The Green Knight is, in reality, Sir Gawain’s shadow self. If Sir Gawain could, likewise, recognise this truth – and accept his whole self – the light and the dark, he too would be released from his Christmas obligation to set off on a journey that is bound to repeat itself, just like Bilbo’s, until he recognises the truth.

The comparisons between Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and John Twelve Hawks’ ‘TheTraveller’ trilogy are striking. The Panopticon Tower is the inspiration behind a new and more insidious form of control of peoples, where we will assume and become adjusted to the idea of being under constant surveillance. This then compares with that other Tower – The Barad dur/Black Tower wherein dwelt the The Eye of ceaseless surveillance of the world. We learn that this Panopticon Tower is set within a ‘ring’ of buildings. Ah yes, rings, but today they are closed circuit TV. Then there is the ultimate Control Room that can tap into any closed circuit system. It contains just a single armchair – no room for anything or anyone else, just the One who has the ultimate power to observe whatever he wishes – just like the Eye of Sauron.

When Michael says to his brother Gabriel ‘There can only be One Traveller’ which casts you back to the scene where, having lured Gandalf to Isengard under false pretences, Saruman is attempting to persuade him to join forces saying they can share the Ring of Power once they have captured it. But Gandalf reminds him that only ‘One’ can wield the Ring as he well knows. Again and again, just as Saruman tells Gandalf and Michael his brother Gabriel, we are told the same mantra – of how there is going to be a new order that is about to sweep the world and that there is no stopping it.

The Cult of the Sacred King also raises its ugly head. Michael turns on Maya the Harlequin and asks her to chose between himself and Gabriel but Gabriel reminds his brother that she is there to protect them both. The pagan queen of this cult is the ruthlessly efficient PR lady advising Michael.

So it seems that the instruments of power and control are the same but just in a new guise.

29 November 2014

P.S. Note too how the mercenaries used in the attack on the desert community founded by the Traveller, who is Gabriel and Michael’s father, are made to become ringwraiths. They are given pills to deaden their human feelings about killing innocent men, women and children and they use heat seeking equipment to find their targets. Ringwraiths had lost their humanity. Viewing the world through heat seeking googles is how the Wraiths saw the world, their hold on the physical world being only tenuous. They sought out living creatures through their warmth like the heat seeking equipment.

Copies of Ring Quest can be obtained from the online publishers New Generation Publishing. Here is the link: